Ultromics Ltd. secured a strategic investment from the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Venture Fund to advance the use of its technology to help clinicians better identify women suffering from heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The condition goes undiagnosed in millions of women, who are disproportionately affected by HFpEF. Ultromics’ Echogo Heart Failure software analyzes routine ultrasound scans to quantify heart function and identify patterns that signal HFpEF.  

Addition Therapeutics came out of stealth mode to highlight its Precise RNA-Mediated Insertion of Transgenes (PRINT) gene therapy platform. The system is based on research of retrotransposons by Kathleen Collins’ laboratory at University of California, Berkeley, that was spun out into Addition in 2021.

Acryl Inc. debuted on South Korea’s Kosdaq Dec. 16, raising ₩42.12 billion ($28.5 million) in an IPO. Shares (KOSDAQ:0007C0) closed at ₩67,000 on the first day, up 243.5% from its offering price, before closing 30% down on Dec. 17 at ₩47,500. Seoul, South Korea-based Acryl sold 2.16 million shares priced at ₩19,500 each. Notably, Acryl won South Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approval of Acryl-D01 software in December 2024, making it the country’s first AI-based digital therapeutic solution for depression screening and diagnosis. The generative AI-based medical software is cleared to analyze patient interviews and medical records and provide a probability score for clinical depression.

Things once done in laboratories can now be done with computers and AI, said Kim Woo-youn, CEO and cofounder of Hits Inc. “We live in the age of ‘digital alchemy,’” Kim told BioWorld, describing how AI is shifting some drug discovery processes from physical to virtual spaces.

Oniria Therapeutics SL, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and Institut Català d’Investigació Química (ICIQ) have partnered to advance ONR-001 for the treatment of colorectal cancer and to prepare it for clinical trials.

D3 Bio Inc. secured $108 million in a series B financing round Dec. 9 to support its planned phase III program of lead oral KRAS G12C inhibitor, elisrasib (D3S-001).